The present invention relates to a device having a portion that can be held in one hand and which can apply vibration generated by a vibration generating mechanism to a dental mixture in a storage section in order to facilitate pouring of the mixture.
In the dental laboratory technique, and operation of pouring a fluid (a mixture) such as a gypsum product or an investment into a restored site such as a crown or inlay in an impression or onto an occlusion or inner surface of a wax pattern is important and significantly affects the quality of a finished product such as denture. Conventionally, a tapered brush, a metallic instrument, or a thin was rod is used to repeat an operation of scooping up a small amount of investment with a tip of the instrument and then pouring it into the target site. Disadvantageously, however, only a small amount of investment can be scooped up at a time and bubbles may be caught in the investment during pouring.
On the contrary, Japanese Utility Model Laid Open No. 2-131417 proposes a device of a dental vibrator. This device is constructed so that a vibrator is vibrated by projecting a tip of a vibrator supported by a base, forward from a tip of a casing and performing a switch operation to engage an intermediate portion of the vibrator with a pinion, which is rotating. According to the description of this device, this construction has such an effect that when a vibrating section at the tip of the vibrator cones in contact with a flowing gypsum product, the gypsum product is vibrated and completely fills an impression.
The vibrator according to the above device, however, must consist of a conductive material because it also acts as part of a switch mechanism. In the specification of the above device, the vibrator is described as a stainless steel rod having a diameter of about 1 mm, and no other example is cited therein.
On the other hand, in producing the impression, its surface must be reproduced very precisely. The material of the impression is generally agar, alginate, or rubber, which is likely to be deformed or damaged under a minor external force. Thus, it can be easily assumed that with the vibrator according to the above device, when a surface of the impression is scratched or rubbed by the tip of the vibrating vibrator, which is made of the stainless steel rod, even a rubber-based impression material, which has a high recoverability, may be deformed or damaged.
The above device does not refer to an operation of bringing the vibrator into contact with the impression surface of the like, but for a thinner impression, it is more difficult to locate the tip portion of the vibrator as deep as possible without bringing it into contact with the impression surface while this portion is buried in the gypsum product. This, the vibrator may actually come in contact with the impression surface. Of course, this possibility is high for an impression surface having a large number of recesses and projections. As a result, with the vibrator of the stainless steel rod as described in the above device, excellent results are not expected because the impression surface is still likely to be deformed or damaged.
The was pattern is more likely to be deformed or damaged under an external force than the impression material, so that delicate operations are required for the burying operation. If the vibrator according to the above device is used for such operations, extremely powerful vibration of the vibrator of the stainless steel rod will pose a problem. Obviously, when the vibrator comes in contact with a surface of the wax pattern, the above vibration may cause a corresponding portion of the surface to be deformed or damaged. Accordingly, due to high risks involved, it is virtually impossible to use the vibrator according to the above device for the burying operation for the wax pattern.
In addition, the amount of gypsum product that can be scooped up by the vibrator of the stainless steel rod according to the above device is substantially equal to that in the above conventional technique, because of no difference between them in form. Consequently, even a small impression cannot be filled during a single operation, whereby an operation of scooping up the gypsum product from a mixer and pouring it into the impression must be repeated a number of times in order to fill a single tooth. As a result, this method may also cause bubbles to be caught in the gypsum product during pouring.
Besides, the vibrator according to the above device also has a problem in terms of removal of bubbles. That is, this vibrator device eliminates bubbles by directly and entirely vibrating a vibrated subject (that is, a gypsum product or the like), but even if bubbles contained in the gypsum product can be eliminated, it is difficult to remove and float, from the impression, bubbles attaching to an inner surface of the impression, particularly, its corners.
Judging from experiences, the mere intense vibration of the gypsum product is not expected to be sufficiently effective in floating bubbles, and a tip of a certain device must be brought into contact with the bubbles to remove them. Of course, the vibrator according to the above device is not suitable as an object to be brought into contact with the bubbles.
Clinically, the inner surface of the impression has a complicated shape with a large number of recesses and projections, and the impression material is thinner in some parts of its surface. In particular, if a rubber-based impression material, which is insufficiently wettable, is used as the impression material, it will be extremely difficult to pour the gypsum product into the impression without generating bubbles. Thus, the prior art must insert a tapered object into the gypsum product to stroke or poke in portions thereof in which bubbles are likely to occur so that the bubbles can be removed and floated from the inner surface of the impression.
The present invention is provided in view of the above circumstances, and it is an object thereof to enable a flowing dental mixture such as a gypsum product or an investment to be poured into a target site by a small amount at a time until the site is sufficiently filled, and to enable the mixture to be poured into the target site without catching bubbles in the mixture.
It is another object of the present invention to remove, without deforming or damaging an impression surface, bubbles that are caught in the mixture upon pouring into the impression and that remain attached to the impression surface after the pouring.
These and other objects are attained by a device for pouring a dental mixture which is constructed so that vibration generated by a vibration generating mechanism is transmitted by vibration transmitting means including a storage section for the mixture and so that a flexible tip is provided at a terminal portion of the vibration transmitting means for supplying a target site with the mixture flowing out from an orifice of the storage section.
The vibration generating mechanism can be included inside a main body. The above objects can also be achieved by a construction comprising a vibration generating mechanism located outside the main body. In this case, vibration transmitting means having a section that comes in contact with the vibration generating mechanism is used to transmit vibration to the flexible tip.